Do you use vocabulary lists in your Spanish class? Are you looking for more ways (ideally LOW PREP) to get your students practicing vocabulary with fun and engaging activities? Maybe you’re just looking for some new vocabulary activities to try out in your Spanish class? Whatever the case- you’re in the right place!
Whether you use vocab lists or not, no judgment here- we all have to do what we feel is right and what we enjoy. At the end of the day, we just want to get our students using MORE real language and increase the vocabulary that our students are using in and out of our Spanish class.
I DO use Vocabulary Lists.
There- I said it.
In every level I teach, I use a vocabulary list as a way to ground the unit and it gives us a good base. I am constantly redesigning my lists to keep up with the times and interests of students, which is something I think is really important.
Keeping one vocabulary list that you use in your Spanish class year after year is not practical. Students’ interests change, technology changes, and relevant topics change. As these things evolve so should our lists.
It sounds like a lot of work to keep re-inventing the wheel with new lists, but if you have a bank of solid vocabulary activities that you can keep re-using in your Spanish class, it’s really not that bad!
Let’s talk about that list- just WHAT can I do to make the words stick?
Most importantly: create your vocabulary list with SPANISH definitions or synonyms. You are doubling or tripling the amount of language your students are exposed to and receiving. Try to make the definitions level appropriate and comprehensible (do NOT just take from RAE or Wordreference and copy/paste).
Use descriptive words that are helpful to your students such as: person, place, thing, action, etc. You will be surprised to see just how quickly they start to use these same words when they are speaking or writing in Spanish.
After introducing the list try these activities out:
Comprehensible Practice:
Practice with the definitions and synonyms from your list. Create a worksheet with a word bank (in Spanish or English for more of a challenge).
Throw those definitions or synonyms into a PPT have your students race to guess the answer. This is a great time to use Whiteboards or just have them type on their Chromebook/iPad and race to show you the correct answer.
Create a no prep/low prep review game where you read the definitions and students have to guess the vocab word. My favorite review game is 5 estrellas where students race to eliminate other teams before they are eliminated!
Task Cards
I love to create super simple and basic vocabulary task cards with my vocabulary lists. I create a table with 8 boxes in Powerpoint, put one word or phrase in each box, print, laminate, cut, and use!
These cards are SO flexible with a little creativity. Check out 7 of my favorite low prep/no prep ways to use Vocab Task Cards in your Spanish Class!
To be honest, my students love them, too! They tell me that they love getting away from the technology and “playing games” (what they call it- they are really practicing vocab!)
Tech Tools:
Break up a routine week with some fun, engaging and super easy to use tech tools. Here are some of my (and my students’) favorites! These are all excellent ways to reinforce vocabulary through fun activities and are designed specifically for our Spanish class!
Gimkit (https://www.gimkit.com/)
Blooket (https://www.blooket.com/)
Quizlet (https://quizlet.com/)
Wordwall (https://wordwall.net/)
The key takeaway here: provide LOTS of input and TONS of opportunities to practice with the new vocabulary (while also practicing with the Spanish synonyms and definitions).
Why does this help you in the long run? When your students forget a word (b/c hey it happens!) they will feel comfortable to circumlocute and describe the word or use a synonym that they learned in your activities.
If you want to see ALL of the activities I do within a unit- check out this Education Vocabulary Unit and you can see how I structure my unit from start to finish!
[…] Looking for ways to increase your students’ vocabulary before the big day? Check out this post. […]